Vancouver Art Book Fair returns in-person after five years, July 26 and 27
Canada’s longest-running international art book fair features more than 80 exhibitors, with a new art-publishing symposium on July 28
Vancouver Art Book Fair. Photo by Rachel Topham
ARTS LOVERS AND bookworms have reason to head to the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre on July 26 and 27: it’s the return of the Vancouver Art Book Fair, the first in-person edition in five years. Plus, new this year is a day-long symposium all about art publishing on July 28 at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
Canada’s longest-running international art book fair features more than 80 exhibitors from across Canada and around the globe. Participating vendors include 51 Personae (Shanghai), e-flux (NYC), Femme Art Review (London, Ontario), Hotam Press (Vancouver), and Norsk Risoforening (Oslo).
The event includes a special reading by Cathy Busby of excerpts from Garry Neill Kennedy’s new posthumously produced publications at 3:30 pm on July 27. In addition, the Vancouver Art Gallery will co-sponsor a special panel discussion on zines, as an extension of its current exhibition Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines.
There will also be performances by multidisciplinary artist Julian Yi-Zhong Hou, among others. The Roundhouse Turntable Plaza will feature a food truck and DJs playing music throughout the fair.
It all takes place on July 26 from 11 am to 9 pm and July 27 from 10 am to 6 pm. Select talks and events will be livestreamed on YouTube.
Vancouver Art Book Fair. Photo by Liz Hang
The new symposium at Emily Carr University, meanwhile, on July 28 from 10 am to 5 pm, will focus on the development of publications. The event will give attendees the chance to connect with exhibitors, while panel discussions will focus on magazines and art criticism, distribution and funding, and other topics. Speakers include Anton Vidokle and Brian Kuan Wood, co-founders of e-flux journal, a monthly publication that covers art, architecture, film, and theory; Blair Swann, executive director of Toronto’s Art Metropole, one of the world’s earliest artist-run bookstores; Emmy Catedral, curator of public programs and bookstore for New York’s Center for Art, Research and Alliances; Vancouver-based writer Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross; and more.
Admission to the fair and symposium is free and open to all. 
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